The LaCrosse interior is altogether new and different from the cheapie Regal and Century rent-a-car interiors. There are fewer but larger individual pieces, built to closer tolerances, for a richer, higher quality look inside. The instruments and controls are presented in white on black, and each of the three round dials in the deeply tunneled instrument panel has a chrome ring around it. Very nicely presented, sportier-looking than previous instruments, with small-diameter chrome-ringed knobs arrayed around the dashboard.
The center stack is done in a mica-flecked flat black, with a trip computer and driver information system that's easy to put through its menu, though the information panel is so glossy that it's hard to read in the morning or afternoon light. The entire dashboard is decorated with a very good imitation woodgrain material. The new front bucket seats in the five-passenger model are clad in leather in the CXL and CXS versions, with a new silk-impregnated vinyl on the seat side panels that emulates leather in look and feel, and a new type of stitching.
Buick makes quite a point of talking about Quiet Tuning, a program of eliminating, tuning out, absorbing, covering up and masking noise sources all over the car, a combination of substituted parts and different types of added sound insulation in the engine, on the firewall, under the toeboard, inside the wheel wells and in the roof. Taken together, the system has made the new LaCrosse one of the quietest, most pleasant cars to ride and drive in in the entire class.
New optional features available on the LaCrosse that were never available on the Century or Regal include a remote starting system that will work from up to 500 feet away, OnStar, XM satellite radio, and StabiliTrak, and if we were ordering a LaCrosse, we would add all of these excellent systems to make a truly complete, safe and all-weather family car.
